By Arun Srivastava
Once Yogi Adityanath formally takes over the charge of the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, the prime minister Narendra Modi will intervene in Bihar. Modi has already been disgusted with the functioning of Bihar chief minister and for quite some time he has been maintaining a nice diplomatic relation with Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar If the party sources are to be believed the recent war of attrition with the Speaker of Bihar Assembly has further worsened Modi-Nitish relations. their relation.
A group of senior BJP leaders, including some parliamentarians have met Modi and apprised him of Nitish’s arbitrary actions and arrogant behaviour. They have also acquainted him about the recent insult inflicted on him by Nitish. A piquant situation arose in the Bihar Assembly on March 14 when Nitish and Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha had a heated exchange over whether a matter being probed by the government and also referred to the privilege committee could be raised on the floor of the House “again and again”.
The relation between Vijay Sinha and Nitish Kumar has deteriorated to such an extent that Speaker did not go to house even though he was present inside the premises of the assembly. The spat between the Speaker and Nitish turned bitter after a nasty incident took place in Lakhisarai in which the local Lakhisarai police SHO and administration had miserably misbehaved with Sinha. On the day of Saraswati Puja in February, a youth, sitting as a spectator was arrested for violating Covid protocol, while no action was taken against the organisers of the puja. Being the local MLA from Lakhsarai, the Speaker Sinha has asked the police to release the boy as he was innocent and not involved in any criminal act. He had also demanded action against the guilty, including police officers.
It is said that the supporters of the state minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh had organised some vulgar programme which created some law and order problem.. A video of the incident is already viral. The police so far has not arrested the real criminals and anti-social elements. Instead of listening to the demand of Sinha , the officer allegedly misbehaved with Sinha. He felt insulted at the behaviour of the police. Later the matter was raised in the Assembly and the matter was referred to the privilege committee for investigation.
The BJP leaders allege that the police in Bihar completely ignored the BJP leaders. The fact is the police does not listen to the complaints and suggestion of the legislators. They simply act on the instructions received from the chief minister’s office or secretariat. This incident has triggered wide ranging resentment among the BJP leaders. They feel that if the police can dare to ignore the directives of Speaker, they would be insulted by them in full public view. Enough is enough and they must act to check this trend.
With this simmering anger, the Bihar BJP leaders held a meeting and apprised the central leaders of the situation. Sinha is also planning to go to Delhi and meet Modi and Amit Shah and tell them that it is gradually becoming agonising to work with Nitish.
What led to the nasty attrition was Sinha directing the minister Bijendra Yadav to apprise the house of the incident for the second time. The Chief Minister rose to express his outrage over Speakers’ directive. He said when the incident and the action taken have been raised in the house only a couple of days back, there was no need to repeat the procedure by raising the issue. Nitish said “The Minister has been authorised to reply on behalf of the government. When he has submitted that inquiry is under way, you ask him to come up with a fresh reply the day after tomorrow. This is against the rules. Please look at the Constitution”. An angry Nitish even narratd his parliamentary experiences; Is the House empowered to intervene in the matter? I am serving my fourth term as the Chief Minister. I was also a member of the Assembly once. Never have I seen such a procedural anomaly. Please don’t run the House in this manner”, Mr. Kumar said.
Though Sinha expressed his respect for his experience, he urged Nitish to look into his miseries and plight, the misdemeanour caused to him. He said: “please understand my predicament. Initially, I had tried not to indulge any discussion in the matter after it was referred to the privilege committee. But members from the treasury benches and the opposition have created a ruckus again and again. After all, I am supposed to be the custodian of the House”, pleaded the speaker. Meanwhile the committee of the House has directed the DGP to conduct an inquiry into the alleged misbehaviour, with the speaker, of a Deputy SP in Lakhisarai and the SHO of the police station concerned. In a house of 243 seats, the BJP has 74 members and Kumar’s JD (U) has 43 members In a house of 243 seats, the BJP has 74 members and Kumar’s JD (U) has 43 members.
There is a lingering apprehension in the political circle that Nitish may forge some kind of relation with the RJD and dump the BJP, as the saffron members have become quite aggressive. Some top JD(U) leaders believe that after Yogi settling down in the office, the top BJP leaders would work out for some way out of the present impasse. (IPA Service)
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